After a fairly steady diet of gloom, to say nothing of doom (King Richard III, Joan of Arc), comedy makes a welcome return to the spotlight when the BMDS stages Another Evening of One Act Plays at Daylesford next week.

A total of five plays, with a variety of settings as varied as London, New York and the south of France, will have five different directors.

Debbie Richards, who majored in drama, dance and music at Southend College of Technology opens the programme with `Don't Start', a comedy set in modern-day London suburbia. Written by a friend of hers, Ric Morgan, she first directed the play while she was at college. Barbara Keady and Steve Ackroyd take on the role of the married couple, with Sue Power as the `loose' widow who lives next door.

Alan Smith, who is better known as a librettist and lyricist for several local shows, steps into the role of director for William Earl Hezlop's `Obit for a Polar Bear'. Set in a TV newsroom as a big story breaks, this play features Arthur Lugo (who impressed audiences in the Bermuda Festival production of `King Richard III') as the male chauvinistic anchorman, Kathy De Couto as his co-anchor, and Heather Bean as the city zoo keeper. Well-known photographer Marshall De Couto, who apparently caught the theatre `bug' when his photographs were used as a war-scene backdrop in `Joan of Arc', makes his acting debut as Mr. Monday, the newsroom producer.

There are two pieces by American playwright, Robert Anderson. The first is Footsteps of Doves, directed by Grahame Rendell. The bedding department of a large New York store is the launching pad for some farcical humour from Connie Dey and George Rushe as the middle-aged couple who decide they need a new bed -- or is it beds? An attractive diversion from this potentially charged question appears in the form of a young divorcee, played by Kathi De Couto, with Steve Watts as the salesman who is underwhelmed with his career.

For Grahame Rendell, who recently returned to Bermuda after a spell in the US, this is his first directing assignment, although he was assistant to the diretor in the BMDS productions of `Crimes of the Heart' and `One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' Overseas, he has played lead roles in such plays as `Blythe Spirit', although he says that due to work he has taken on "undistinguished roles'' in local productions.

Barbara Jones is the most experienced director on this bill, having brought her considerable skills to such dissimilar shows as `Aladdin', rehearsed readings of Shakespeare and the popular `Not the Um Um' productions at the Clayhouse. She is also an experienced stage manager and lighting designer.

This time, she is turning her attention to a sophisticated little French comedy by Sacha Guitry, entitled `Villa for Sale'. Evelyn MacGregor, last seen in The Little Foxes, takes on the role of Juliette, an aristocratic lady of delicate sensibilities who, finding herself short of cash, decides to put her home on the market.

The other play by Robert Anderson is `I'm Herbert', a bitter-sweet duet for a couple (Connie Dey and George Rushe), married late in life who sit in their garden and reminisce with cheerful inaccuracy about their two previous marriages.

Grappling with the task of bringing these separate, `mini' productions under some semblance of order is the producer, Hilary Roberts. "One of my biggest tasks is getting everybody together at the right time,'' she laughs.

"Some people are in two plays, which makes things very complicated! And Alan Smith is doing acting workshops so we have to fit in with his schedule.'' Noting that Mr. Smith who has written for the Youth and Sports Annual Road Shows and was also the author of the book and lyrics for `The Violation of Xim', she comments: "He is very pleased to have the support of people who have done quite a lot of theatre work before. We are able to give him the back-up he needs and we are very impressed with him.'' Another Evening of One-Act Plays runs at Daylesford from Monday, June 27 through Saturday, July 2 at 8 p.m. nightly. Tickets at $10 are available from the Daylesford Box Office from 5.30 to 7 p.m. until June 24, from 12.30-2.30 p.m. on June 25 and during show week from 7 p.m. onwards.

HOW MUCH? -- Members of the BMDS rehearsing a scene for "Villa For Sale.'' From left to right: Steve Akroyd, Sue Power and Evelyn MacGregor.